'1882.] IBN BATUTA IN THE MALDIVES AND CEYLON. Al 



^monkeys, bearing staves, inarch on Ms right and left, and, when 

 sthe chief is seated, they stand behind him. His wife and little 

 ones come and sit before him every day. The other monkeys 

 •come and squat at some distance from him : then one of the four 

 above-mentioned gives them the word and they withdraw ; after 

 which, each brings a banana, or a lime, or some such fruit. The 

 King of the monkeys, his little ones, and the four chief monkeys 

 then eat. A certain ajogui related to me that he had seen these 

 four monkeys before their Chief, occupied in beating another 

 monkey with a stick, after which they plucked his hair.* 



Trustworthy persons have reported to me that when one of 

 these monkeys has got possession of a young girl, she is unable 

 to escape his lust. An inhabitant of the island of Ceylon has 

 told me that he had a monkey, and when one of his daughters 

 entered the house, the animal followed her. She cried him o% 

 but he did her violence. " We ran to her aid," continued the 

 speaker, " and seeing the monkey embracing her, we killed him." 



Then we took our departure for 'the vale of bamboos,'f where 

 Abou 'Abd Allah, son of Khafif, found two rubies, which he 



* " This is evidently a confused account of the Veddas and their customs. 

 Ibn Batuta was now m their country, Sabaragamuwa, through which he was 

 journeying, being, as its name imports, 'the Vedda village.' " (Skeen, loc. cit. 

 p. 289). See C.A. S. Journ., Vol. VII., Pt. II., No. 24, 1881, p. 107. — B. 



f "Passing through the forest, and cresting several hills that rose each higher 

 than the one behind we came to Ali-hantenne, [Ali-hen-tena] a tract of dense 

 canes or hatali, crossed in all directions by numerous elephant tracks. This was 

 evidently one of the favourite feeding grounds of that monarch of the forest, 

 as the name it bore plainly enough indicated. Beyond this is an extensive 

 marsh, thickly covered with large reeds, — * the estuary of reeds' of Ibn Batuta, 

 [Lee's version] — a swampy district, not at all pleasant to pass at any season, 

 wet or dry, owing to the swarms of leeches that infest it: and further on is 



Batapola On the right of the path, in the upward ascent, is one of the caves 



which Ibn Batuta refers to in his narrative. It is formed by a straight fissure, 

 in shape like an immense inverted V, running longitudinally through a huge 

 boulder 40 feet in length, from 12 to 15 feet in height, and proportionally broad. 5 ' 

 (Skeen, be, Gib, p, 146).— B } 



